Our engagement story WARNING: Kind of long :-(

I guess that due to our recent FHE (see post below) I have been thinking back to that blessed day that my sweet hubby proposed to me. It is such a great story that I thought that I would post it (just in case any of you are in the mood for a good story filled with manure...haha, that got your attention HUH!)
It happened on the last Saturday in May '96. Chris had recently told me that he had prayed about whether he should marry me and told me that he 'could' marry me. I still don't know what he meant by that comment. We had also done some ring shopping and I had picked out my two favorites and he was supposed to take it from there. So I was hoping that a little 'bling bling' would be coming my way SOON! A new semester of school was starting in a few days and I was dying to have a ring to show off to my Ballroom team ( I was on the Ballroom tour team at UVSC at the time). Chris had asked me to go on a hike and picnic up Payson canyon and there was a huge part of me that really thought that this would be the night. We stopped at one of our favorite places, Zubs, for some sandwiches and then started driving up the canyon. Thinking that I was being so sneaky, I casually asked when Chris thought that he would be able to get the ring and propose. He told me that he wouldn't buy it until he could pay cash for it.
"WHAT! Chris, that will take FOREVER and I want my ring NOW!" Yes, that is exactly how and what I said...to this day, I can't believe that I was such a little brat. SHEESH!
Naturally Chris got upset at my reaction which made me more upset and we began to fight. We fought for the entire drive up the canyon about it! (Little did I know that he had the ring in his pocket and was planning to propose that night). Later Chris told me that he had decided not to propose due to my spoiled brat behavior.
Lucky for me, the date continued. We hit the trail at around 7pm and started the hike, it really wasn't much of a hike, more like a short little walk. At one point we had to cross a small river and the bridge consisted of a man made bridge of some fallen tree trunks. Chris crossed the bridge first and I followed. I was scared and so I decided to cross the bridge with my feet AND hands touching the bridge (I'm sure it was quite the site, picture Moogly (sp?) from the Jungle Book), about half way across my keys fell out of my pocket and fell into the river! These keys had my car and apartment keys on them and were not replaceable. Chris started to help me search in the river and the next thing I knew he was waist deep in the freezing cold water! I still remember watching this amazing man that I loved so much sacrifice his warmth and dry clothes for ME!!! And after I had been such a butt on the way up. I remember how guilty and awful I felt for acting this way and how all of the sudden, the ring didn't matter anymore. Chris searched for about 30 minutes and I finally told him to end the insanity and come out of the water. At that precise moment he pulled his hand from the water with the keys in his hand!!! I still do not know how he found them.
At this point he was wet up to his chest and it was sun-down, I begged him to just take us home before he got sick, but he INSISTED that we finish the hike. I finally relented and a few minutes later we were in the grotto. The 'grotto' was a horseshoe shaped area that was sheer cliffs all around and a small waterfall at one end. The waterfall fell into a knee deep pond and in the middle of a pond was a huge flat rock. Chris' plan was to eat on this rock. He had brought a blanket and tried to lay it on the rock, but I insisted that he use it to wrap around him instead. We ate our romantic picnic on the rock, the entire time Chris sat shivering. At this point it was dark and pretty chilly, so again I begged him to take us home. He kept putting it off like he was trying to delay things. I found out later that he was waiting for the moon to be right over the waterfall (isn't he romantic?). He stood me up and wrapped us both up in the blanket and then the rest of the conversation went like this
J; "Chris, please let's go, you are freezing"
C; "let's just wait a little bit longer"
J; "no, you are going to get sick, what are you waiting for?"
C;" Jenny, do you know how much I love you?"
J; "Yes, honey, I know, now let's go"
C; " You know that I REALLY love you?"
J; "yes, I know, and I love you to, please can we go?"
C; "do you know how much I want to marry you?"
J; "yes, I know, can we talk about this after you get dry?"
at this point, he trys to kneel down, which is difficult since we are both sharing a blanket. This upsets me because he no longer is in the warm blanket, so I start trying to make him stand up...clearly I am TOTALLY clueless about what he was trying to do. DUH!
C; "I love you and want to marry you"
J; "I love you too, but please stand up"
C; "Jenny will you marry me?"
At this point the light bulb FINALLY turned on in my brain and I realized why he was kneeling and that he was holding something in his hand....THE RING!
Then we kissed and cried and probably kissed some more...it was so sweet and romantic and in the end totally caught me off guard!
On the hike down, Chris refused to let me carry the ring...he didn't want to fish THAT out of the water! Once we got to his car he took his pants off and wrapped a blanket around him like a lava-lava (don't worry I closed my eyes). The interior car light did not work and I was DYING to see my ring, so he turned the headlights on and we walked around the front of the car to look at it...it was so BEAUTIFUL!!! As we stood there gazing at its beauty we started smelling something foul and looked down to see that we were both standing in a huge pile of horse (or cow) manure! I''m sure it was quite the site to see the two of us huddled in front of his car lights, him wrapped in a skirt (well blanket) and both of us standing in poo! When Chris tells the story he always says that at that moment he thought "I hope that this experience isn't an indication of what our marriage will be like". Well in my opinion it definitely is NOT!!!! I love you babe!